Well, by some definitions it was launched weeks ago. It’s on the ISS, and they’re prepar
ing it for deployment with a group of other tiny satellites.
I helped (slightly) to sponsor the SkyCube satellite via their Kickstarter campaign. Being able to tweet from space briefly, and being able to direct the camera to take images occasionally, has a pretty high cool value.
A then-local author, Phillip C. Jennings, published a story collection called The Bug Life Chronicles in 1988. One of the details that struck me was the idea of uploading minds to very light solar-powered chips, which would then drift around the system on the solar winds.
The current space shuttle mission (STS-134) is carrying an experiment, the Sprite project, that at least expresses interest in the idea of chips blowing around the system on the solar wind.
I first saw mention of this in the LA Times.